http://www.spotrac.c...nthers/cap-hit/(Our cap hits and access to details on every players contract..Click on specific player's full contract to see future cap hits and signing bonus money still counting against the cap in future years)

Signing bonus- This is guaranteed money players receive as soon as their contract is signed. This money can be and often is spread over the course of a player contracts for up to 5 years. This means the player already has the money but the hit against the cap is spread out. If we cut a player we are no longer responsible for their base salary and owe them nothing. The only deterrent to cutting a player with a large signing bonus is we still have to take the hit against the cap of whatever guaranteed money has not already been accounted for against the cap.

Base Salary- This is the yearly money a player will receive if still on the team, this money and their amortized signing bonus, plus any other workout bonus accounts for our total cap hit.

Dead Money- This refers to money that counts against the cap from players who were cut before their signing bonus has been fully accounted for against the cap.

June 1st cuts- Teams can divide up the remaining dead money or unaccounted for against the cap signing bonus money from players cut over the current year and the next.

*As we did with Wharton last year the new CBA allows for a team to cut up to 2 players before June 1st and still be designated as a June 1st cut, hence allowing a team to spread the hit over 2 years without officially having to wait until June to do so.

March 12th- This is our first deadline to be under the cap(first day of the league year and start of free agency). When we cut down to 53 in September we will have to make sure we are under the cap again.

131.8 Million- This is the amount we are currently have committed to the 2013 cap. The cap is right at 121 Million for 2013.

4,526,462- The amount of the dead money already hitting our cap for 2013. Most of this came from 2 players, Mare(2 Million) and Wharton(1.8 million)

4.5-5 million- The amount our rookie class should roughly count against our cap. (Brockers the 14th overall last year counted 2.164 Million against the rams cap last year, Mychal Kendricks the 46th overall pick last year count just over 1 million against the eagles cap last year thats roughly 3.75 million to our 2 first rounders, plus we'll have a few other picks counting less as well)

Easiest way to calculate for yourself- Go to the spotrac website referenced above. Look at the cap hits and how much remaining signing bonus money we have spread out on each player by clicking on their name. IF you cut that player ignore their base salary and just use the signing bonus money as a cap hit. Choose to spread it out over 1 or 2 years. Keep in mind spreading it out over 2 years can be very helpful but just creates more dead money down the road.

****These numbers have been edited for accuracy and added a few to the list 2-10-13****

Ways to save without using June 1st rule and piling up dead money for 2014 as well

Cutting Gamble would save us 7.9 million

Cutting Gross would save us 6.9 million

Cutting Ron Edwards would save us 2.5 million

Cutting Hangartner would save 1.575

Cutting Gary Williams would save us 1.125 Million

Cutting Nakumara would save $966,000

Cutting Kenny Onatulu would save us $775,000

Cutting Jason Williams would save 715,000

Cutting Bruce Campbell would save us 630,000

Cutting David Gettis would save us 630,000

Cutting Armanti Edwards would save us 630,000

The following would all save us 555,000 a piece if cut or all 7 together would save 3.885 million.

Thomas Austin

James Dockers

Mario Addison

Jeff Byers

Colin Jones

Armond Smith

Colin Cole

*We could cut other players but if won't save us close to a million no point in fooling with them right now.

**Gross and Gamble should be very easy to restructure as their contracts are almost up and have very little leverage because their remaining signing bonus money to hit the cap is very small(3 Million for Gross and 3 million for Gamble in comparison to their cap hits).

Players that would have to be a june 1st cut to save us money this year and by default next year too, but will cause dead money to be on the books in 2014.

Cutting Beason would have an immediate savings of 3.5 million this year and 6.75 million next year.

Cutting Deangleo would have an immediate savings us of 3.4 million in 13 and 4.4 million in 2014. Cutting D-will will also create another 4.6 million in dead money for 2014, because he has a total of 9.6 million in signing bonus scheduled to hit the cap over the next 3 years.

Further reading on Beason situation.

Something has to be done here because not only does he have a large cap hit for 13(9.5 million) it goes up to 10.75 in 2014 and 11.75 in 2015. Since he has 12 million in signing bonus money scheduled to hit the books over the next 3 years( 4 million a year) if we cut him now it would require an immediate hit of the full 12 million. That is more than his current cap hit of 9.5 million if we keep him. Therefore if were going to cut him it makes more sense to do it as a june 1st cut if looking for the cap relief for this year. However if Gettleman can get us under the cap without making him a june 1st cut 2014 will have a much better outlook as we won't have 6 million in dead money already committed to the books.

Further reading on Deangleo Williams situation.

Cutting D-will will also create another 4.6 million in dead money for 2014, because he has a total of 9.6 million in signing bonus scheduled to hit the cap over the next 3 years. If we can bite the bullet on him for this year and hold off on cutting him until next year it would be much more ideal from a fiscal sense. If we cut him next year we can do it before June 1st and still save 2.8 million without carrying over dead money into 2015.

1 other wildcard here would be James Anderson but much like Deangleo if you look at his contract it makes much more sense to wait another year on him .http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/carolina-panthers/james-anderson.

In summary it looks nice and pretty to cut Gamble and Gross but because they have little signing bonus money yet to hit the cap, it provides us a good leverage in negotiating a restructure or small extension. On the flip side someone like Beason who has 12 million in signing bonus money yet to hit our cap has the upper hand on us in regards to not renegotiating if does not want to. I just think much like Wharton, Beason's time is up because we have drafted his much cheaper replacement.

Heres our 2013 Unrestricted Free Agents

Dwan Edwards

Jordan Senn

Antwan Applewhite

Captain Munnerlyn

Louis Murphy

Sherrod Martin

Ben Hartstock

Gary Barnidge

Mike Pollack

Derek Anderson

Restricted Free Agents

Jason Phillips

Nate Ness

Richie Brockel

Andre Neblett

**also something to keep in mind is that Hardy will be a free agent next year and Cam the following year. Both these players are on pace to demand larger contracts so we need to cut back on the trend of doing june 1st cuts and carrying "dead money" over as much as possible so we can retain them.

Trying to figure out what the discrepancy is. Of course, wouldn't be surprised if Pat Y is just flat out wrong.

He does it for a living so I trust him to a degree but if you look here http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/carolina-panthers/haruki-nakamura/ , his total cap figure is only listed at 1,633,000 and we would have to absorb 666,000 of "dead money" or unamortized "signing bonus" money and thats how I came up with my figure.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

So I'm reading that as we have to get down roughly between $15.3 and $15.8 million to meet the 2013 cap.

Fun times.

Yes and no. The rookies won't hit our cap until we cut down to 53. So for now we only need to cut 11.7 or 11.8 depending on the source you read to get under before the league year starts on March 12th. Then the 2nd time we have to be under the cap is when we cut down to 53 and their contracts will factor in by then.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Gary Williams and Hangman are probably the easiest cuts. Then, hopefully you can restructure a few guys. I wish we got more relief from losing one of the linebackers, because we just have too many making too much money.

Was there Spotrac data on Gamble? Because it wasn't there last time I checked.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Yes and no. The rookies won't hit our cap until we cut down to 53. So for now we only need to cut 11.7 or 11.8 depending on the source you read to get under before the league year starts on March 12th. Then the 2nd time we have to be under the cap is when we cut down to 53 and their contracts will factor in by then.

We also have draft picks to sign....so I think we need to get down even more to have room to sign them.

Yeah I added the rookie # guestimate he had to that cap figure, so it included signing the rookies.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Gary Williams and Hangman are probably the easiest cuts. Then, hopefully you can restructure a few guys. I wish we got more relief from losing one of the linebackers, because we just have too many making too much money.

Was there Spotrac data on Gamble? Because it wasn't there last time I checked.